Tennis: Jimbo returns to serve

Wimbledon has had some fiery clashes over the years, but Connors v McEnroe in the commentary box may top the lot

If the BBC’s top tennis producer, Paul Davies, or the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) performance director, David Felgate, do manage to get Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe to work together in a commentary box at Wimbledon next year, they should be forced to resign from their jobs immediately. It would be unfair for the modern world as we know it for them to remain.

Their talents at brokering a peace after such long-standing hatred would be far more usefully employed bringing together real warring factions. Send them to Iraq, send them to the Gaza Strip. Don’t waste them on tennis.

Connors’s and McEnroe’s mutual loathing is not a publicity stunt, designed to add spice and put bums on seats as well as raising the TV royalties. It was for real, every single bad-mouthed moment. They may have respected each other’s playing ability, but Jimmy couldn’t stand McEnroe, and in all